I Can't Have Tea Late at Night Because of All the Ayes Ayes

This painting explores the idea of insomnia, and its psychological effects. An interesting side effect of lack of sleep is the distortion, or ripples, in the stream of perceived reality. Deprive yourself of sleep long enough, and the world of dreams begins to seep into our world of being awake. Whether the cause of insomnia is internal or external, a lack of sleep can alter our perception and temporary understanding of time and space, and we can begin to question the certainty of our being and what we traditionally perceive as normal life experience.

The aye-aye is a nocturnal lemur from Madagascar with an unusually long middle finger. Some natives of Madagascar believe that aye-ayes are heralds of evil. The superstition surrounding the aye-aye is that if one should point its narrow middle finger at someone, they are condemned to death. It is also believed that aye-ayes sneak into houses through the thatched roofs and murder the sleeping occupants by using their middle finger to puncture the victim's aorta. Because of this some villagers will kill ayes-ayes on sight and hang up their corpses to ward of evil.

In this artwork the woman sits naked at the dining table, while floating up towards the chandelier on the ceiling as a group of curious aye-ayes ransack the house. The woman has given up, letting go of any semblance of control, accepting everything with an indifferent passivity, creating a symbiotic relationship with the inquisitive lemurs. The aye-ayes in the artwork are a manifestation of insomnia, the furry heralds of the inauspicious, with each passing moment the problem becoming larger, more out of control.

This painting was created in 2010.

The Blind Prophet of New Orleans

The man in this artwork is blind, his sight is not of light waves, but more metaphysical.  He is the landscape of New Orleans, he is the streets, the buildings, the bridges, the trash, the enslaved horses, the ubiquitous street musicians, the bittersweet smell, the ancient cracking sidewalks and musical rot iron. The city speaks through his mouth, but no one listens.

If our lifetime was only one day, could you believe in the existence of the stars and the eternal deep night of the universe, if all you had ever seen up to that point was the blue skies and clouds?  The revolving dance and song of the prophets echo throughout our history, alternating between respect and ridicule, between a belief in that which is only tangible and that which is beyond what our eyes can see.

Most prophets from western religions could be seen in the same light as the homeless man preaching in the street. Moses talking to a burning bush, Abraham about to kill his son because of voices he hears. These are just two examples of many. If these events took place today, on our modern stage, how would the average person look upon these prophets? Imagine a modern day prophet warning the cities inhabitants that there will be a terrible flood in the streets of New Orleans in the near future.  Who of us would take them seriously, would even stop to discuss it with them? How do we draw the line between illusions and fantasy, and our shared collective reality, and is there even a line?

This painting was created in 2009.

Downstairs

http://www.upstairsgalleryla.com/downstairs/crawl_121004.htm

I will be showing in October at the new Downstairs Gallery in Monroe, Louisiana. The exhibition is titled "Outside (r) In" and I will be with 2 other artist; Wendell R Wilson and the resident artist Julie Pearson.

Recent happenings

2 of my paintings will be at the 2012 Toy Joy Art Show. August 9th-September 1st, 2928 Guadalupe Street, Austin, TX (inside Tom's Tabooley).

I was awarded an honorable mention in the Austin Art Board contest. The artwork will be hanging in Bass Concert Hall from August 22-October 8th.

My art "The Judgement of the Owls" is currently hanging in Austin City Hall, I was informed by ABC that their TV show "The Lying Game" will be filming there and my artwork could possibly be in a background scene.

Around 4 of my paintings will also be on display inside Freescale at Texenza Coffee, (but you have to have a security badge to enter).

I am currently working on a new serious of paintings, and after I complete about 10-15 of them I will be looking for exhibitions around Austin.

artweb.net

I have my artwork on artweb.web, a site with lots of art to check out!

Next Generation Project Texas Fellow

I have been selected to be a Next Generation Project Texas Fellow by the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas at Austin. I'm looking forward to it!

More information here.

Public FB page

I have a public page for my artwork up now. If you'd like to receive updates from the page you can follow the link below and "like" it.

Link to like

NPR and Austin City Hall

My artwork is featured on NPR. It is an article about Turning Art.

I will be showing with other artists at the 2011 People’s Gallery Exhibition at Austin City Hall. The exhibition runs from February 18, 2011 – January 13, 2012.

Bacchus in Barcelona

I just uploaded "Bacchus Giraffe…Drunken God of Mythology" to DeviantART where you can order prints and other merchandise.

If you are in Barcelona, you can see a print of this artwork at Bar Zim (Calle Dagueria 20, Barcelona - Gothic Quarter). I look forward to going there myself someday and enjoying a glass of wine.

TurningArt

My art is on a site called TurningArt. It works similar to Netflix, only you can build credit towards purchasing the art. More here.

Austin Airport

I have a new assemblage piece I created titled "Grass Growing Through Cracks in the Sidewalk", that will be on display at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport until January 2011 (across from gate 8). It is part of a Green Art Series show.

Here is an article

Summer Group Show

I will be showing at Dahlia woods Gallery show titled "HOT TIME...Summer in the City", a group show featuring 11 artists. Opening reception Fri. June 11: 6 - 8:30 p.m. and show continues through August 31st.

Spring

I will be participating in an exhibit titled Fresh Faces, which runs from May 1 - June 5 at the Bath House Cultural Center in Dallas. I created a piece for this show titled "Interrupted while constructing my chrysalis". Its a piece that shows a woman building a chrysalis around her, hidden away in some room or basement. Someone is walking down the stairs interrupting her work. The original idea for this was going to be a green misanthrope style lady, but the work evolved on its own into this idea.

May 15th and 16th I will have some artwork included in the 5X7 Exhibition and Fundraiser for the Arthouse at the Jones Center in Austin. My first artwork to be shown here in Austin. I created 2 untitled pieces for the fundraiser that I am donating to the Arthouse. One is a man holding 2 doves. The idea for this painting was created while watching a documentary on Tesla. Toward the end of his life he loved feeding the pigeons of NYC, and had a favorite white one. Tesla was a brilliant man and his love for animals persuaded me to respect him even more. The other is an abstract of Nikki. The colors remind me of the way Ladybird Lake smells early in morning. There is a certain blue-green smell that is nice when you are close enough to the lake the wind blows your direction. These paintings are small, which was interesting to work on canvas that small.

My art will be included in the publication Moulin Review, Vol. 2 and Vol.3. Im looking forward to seeing my artwork in these publications, and reading the stories and poetry by others as well.

We bought our first home and are currently moving so I will be taking a break for a while. We are staying in Austin but moving to the South-West section, which has more of a hill country flavor about it. I think when I do start my art up again I will be creating some scenes from the hill country.

Modern Luxury Magazine

There is an article about my artwork in the March issue of Modern Luxury Magazine (Dallas edition). Check it out here online

Ive also redesigned my site.

The Elephant's Au Pair